Cryptos Fall, Bitcoin Slumps to Seven-Month Low

Bitcoin was trading at $6,358.7 decreasing 6.07% on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 7:37 AM ET (11:37 GMT) to a seven-month low.

Cryptocurrencies overall were slightly lower, with the coin market cap of total market capitalization falling to $269 billion at the time of writing compared to $288 billion on Thursday.

Ethereum slumped 10.20% to $486.43 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, decreased 6.87% to $0.50402 while Litecoin was at $88.73, down 8.86%.

The digital coins have struggled to gain ground in recent weeks amid accusations of price manipulation, unscalability, and security concerns among exchanges.

South Korean Bithumb is unlikely to get a payout from its insurance firm after 35 billion South Korean won ($31.5 million) of virtual coins were hacked Wednesday.

Bithumb spends among the most on insurance than any other exchange in South Korea, at about $5.4 million.

News agency Yonhap reported that the hack amounts as “property damage” which is not covered under the terms of its insurance.

It’s the latest of a number of coin hacks, as security remains one of the biggest threats to digital coins.

Just two weeks ago, Coinrail lost approximately $37.2 million worth of coins, while hackers stole more than $500 million from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck in January.

Meanwhile the Bank of Korea is opposed to the idea of a central bank-backed digital coin, as it could cause moral hazard for the bank and destabilize the markets.

“It’s desirable that the BOK is the only entity to entirely control issuing money,” the central bank said in a report. As the digital coins have increased in popularity, central bankers have been struggling with how to respond, with some exploring the possibility of issuing their own crypto coin.